The Alexandrian

Running Castle Blackmoor

September 29th, 2018

Castle Blackmoor

October 1st is Dave Arneson Day, a celebration of the Father of Roleplaying Games on the day of his birth. After writing up Reactions to OD&D: The Arnesonian Dungeon, I decided that I wanted to celebrate Dave Arneson Day this year by running Castle Blackmoor. And I specifically wanted to do so in a way which would closely emulate the feel of that very first session when Arneson’s players walked into the basement, discovered Castle Blackmoor, and ventured down the stairs into the dungeons beneath it.

I relatively quickly decided on a few mission parameters for this endeavor.

First, I wasn’t interested in trying to re-engineer the original rules Arneson used, if for no other reason than that this is, in fact, flatly impossible. Arneson kept no records of those rules, he never shared them with anyone (including the players), he redesigned them so often that I doubt even he remembered what the original rules were by 1973, and I’ve already done the “explore mysterious ur-text mechanics and cobble a game out of them” thing (see Reactions to OD&D).

Second, my specific point of interest was the way in which Arneson organically created the dungeon; i.e., the game structures he used for stocking and re-stocking the dungeon. As described in The Arnesonian Dungeon this is something that we’re able to tease out of the surviving record with a fair amount of detail (if not necessarily the specific charts and so forth).

Third, my interest in exploring the established canon of Blackmoor was fairly minimal. This can be a fascinating topic (although frustratingly scant; so many players, but very few memories, and the memories that have been recorded often contradict each other and the written records), but Blackmoor was (and arguably is) a living campaign with 40+ years of history which has been inconsistently reflected in disparate printed sources. Rather than enmeshing myself in that sort of Byzantine continuity, what I was interested in was creatively positioning myself in the same place Dave Arneson creatively positioned himself on Day 1 of the Blackmoor Dungeons and then moving forward from there.

What did this approach mean in practice?

  • Take the original maps of the dungeon as presented in the First Fantasy Campaign.
  • Recreate the original monster and treasure stocking tables to the best of our ability, then use them to stock the maps.
  • Establish a minimal baseline of “established lore”, largely based on the material in the First Fantasy Campaign.
  • Set up a scenario reminiscent of Greg Svenson’s recollection of The First Dungeon Adventure.
  • Run the game using just the original three OD&D booklets.

I want to be quite clear here and reiterate that my goal is not to perfectly recreate Arneson’s original dungeon key. Or even to take the limited information we know about that dungeon key and then fill in the holes around those fragments. For example, the fact that I haven’t put 2 Lycanthropes in Area 18 of the 8th Level (as found in the FFC key) is not a mistake; that’s simply not what I’m trying to do here.

I was rather hoping to have all of this prepared for public presentation several weeks ago so that others could also use it for Dave Arneson Day this year. Unfortunately, I ended up going down a few too many rabbit holes with my research. (And, as I write this, I’m still trying to figure out to exactly what degree I want to rely strictly on the maps from the First Fantasy Campaign and to what degree I want to avail myself of other efforts to correct shortcomings and inaccuracies in those maps.) Hopefully you will still find it of interest, and perhaps some of you will find some other occasion for using this material.

If nothing else, there’s always next year, right?

STOCKING THE DUNGEON

STEP 1: CHECK FOR INHABITED ROOMS

  • 1st Level: 1 in 6
  • 2nd Level: 2 in 6
  • 3rd+ Level: 3 in 6

STEP 2: DETERMINE PROTECTION POINTS

  • Roll 1d10 and multiply by the level’s protection factor.
LEVELPROTECTION FACTOR
1st Level5 points
2nd Level10 points
3rd Level15 points
4th Level25 points
5th Level35 points
6th Level40 points
7th Level50 points

STEP 3: ROLL ON MONSTER LEVEL TABLES

Simple Option: Once a creature type is determined, purchase the maximum number of creatures allowed by your protection point budget (minimum 1).

Complex Option: Roll Number Appearing on the OD&D monster tables. (This is indicated on the monster level tables for ease of reference.)

  • Purchase as many monsters of that type as your protection point budget allows up to the Number Appearing generated (minimum 1).
  • If you run out of Protection Points before hitting the Number Appearing and have points left over, purchase a weak version of the same creature (baby, etc.).
  • If you purchase the full Number Appearing and have Protection Points left over, roll again on the monster level table to create a mixed encounter.

STEP 4: GENERATE TREASURE

Determine Presence of Treasure: 3 in 6 chance for occupied rooms; 1 in 6 chance in unoccupied rooms.

Determine Treasure Type

D6TREASURE TYPE
1-2Gold
3Potions & Amulets
4Arms & Armor
5Equipment
6Roll Again Twice (Stacks)

MONSTER LEVEL TABLES

Use:

  • Group I for 1st and 2nd dungeon level
  • Group II for 3rd and 4th dungeon level
  • Group III for 5th+ dungeon level

GROUP I

D10MONSTER# APPEARINGPOINT COST
1Orc30-3002
2Elf / Fairy30-3004
3Dwarf40-4002
4Gnome40-4002
5Goblin / Kobold40-4001.5
6Sprite / Pixie10-1004
7Hobbit30-3001.5
8Giant Spider1-1015
9
Roll Special
10
Roll on Group II Table

GROUP II

D10MONSTER# APPEARINGPOINT COST
1
Roll on Group I Table
2Lycanthrope (Wolf 1-2, Lion 3-4, Bear 5-6)2-2020
3Fighting Man (Level = Dungeon Level)30-30010 * Level
4Wizard (Level = Dungeon Level)30-30010 * Level
5Roc / Tarn1-2020
6Troll / Ogre3-1815
7Ghoul2-2410
8Gargoyle2-2415
9
Roll Special
10
Roll on Group III Table

GROUP III

D10MONSTER# APPEARINGPOINT COST
1
Roll on Group II Table
2Balrog*1-675
3Dragon / Purple Worm1-4100
4Elemental (Air 1-2, Earth 3-4, Water 5, Fire 6)1100
5Ent2-2015
6Giant1-850
7True Troll2-1275
8Wraith (Nazgul)2-1610
9-10
Roll Special

* 2 in 6 chance the Balrog is guarding something (60% magical, 40% wealth).

Hobbit: Use kobold stats.

Giant Spider: Use Ogre stats, with a poison that deals full damage a second time on failed save.

DESIGN NOTES

Castle Blackmoor’s dungeons descend to Level 10 in the printed maps. (Reputedly only one expedition ever discovered the 11th Level, but the dungeons were said by Arneson to go as far down as the lava pits on the 25th level.) Despite this, the Protection Factor table ends at 7th Level because that’s as far as Arneson provided information. Beyond 7th level the value would have either capped or continued to increase. (But you run into additional problems in any case in the lack of Group IV monsters.)

I’ve used the OD&D # appearing entries here out of a sense of purity, although due to the “generate a tribe” mentality of those numbers they largely negate the point for the Group I creatures. You might consider ripping them out and replacing them with more dungeon-appropriate numbers (perhaps sourced from a later edition). The complex method utilizing the # Appearing entry is not strictly Arnesonian in any case. Use to taste..

Next: Special Monsters

RUNNING CASTLE BLACKMOOR
Part 2: Special Monsters
Part 3: Treasure Stocking
Part 4: Magic Swords
Part 5: Castle Background & Features
Part 6: The Dungeon Key
Part 7: Restocking the Dungeon
Part 8: Special Interest Experience
Part 9: Special Interests
Part 10: Blackmoor Village Map
Part 11: Blackmoor Player’s Reference

Reactions to OD&D: The Arnesonian Dungeon
Reactions to OD&D: Arneson’s Machines

 

8 Responses to “Running Castle Blackmoor”

  1. Redwood Rhiadra says:

    Right below the bullet-point description of your approach, you have an incomplete sentence/paragraph: “I want to be quite clear that my goal here is not”. I think that needs filling in?

  2. Wyvern says:

    One of your sentences is truncated: “I want to be quite clear that my goal here is not”

  3. Wyvern says:

    Oops, should have refreshed the page before posting.

  4. Justin Alexander says:

    It might come back, actually. I’ve updated the page twice only to come back later and find the sentence fragment has returned. Weirdest WordPress bug I’ve seen yet.

  5. Jeremy says:

    Is your Protection Points budget per inhabited room or per level? This isn’t totally clear to me. It seems like per room but I wanted to double check.

  6. Justin Alexander says:

    Per room. (Make sure to multiply by 1d10.)

  7. Daniel Boggs says:

    Super cool idea of using the monster groupings for a restocking project. I like it and I look forward to seeing what you come up with. The restock list I sent you is based on a reshuffling of the d20 material.

    Point Cost,
    I think you’ve probably seen my write up on how to do the 1/6th variation thing, but if not I can link. A thing to be aware of is that the system Arneson realted in the FFC is something he may never have used and can give you a really tough dungeon. Megarry’s mathmatics are a little more favorable.

    Goblins – Arneson also has a tougher 5pt goblin (a hobgoblin basically)

    Trolls – trolls of the D&D sort are halfway between the true troll (giant troll) and the “Ogre” troll which is really a much weaker thing like the trolls in Gnomes. True trolls cost 75 points. A D&D troll should probably be about 40 points.

    For your giant spider you might consider using the 3 random ones Arneson generated in the FFC key or the 12 HD version Hilda Hannifen reported in A&E. I use all 4.

    For Treasure, if you want to get really authentic Arsonian treasure, you can follow his Lake Gloomey stocking list trsnscribed here http://boggswood.blogspot.com/2014/08/stocking-blackmoor-wilds-in-1972.html

    🙂

  8. Havard says:

    Too bad I didn’t know about this blog when I was doing my highlights of DA Day 2018 post. http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2018/10/dave-arneson-game-day-2018-highlights.html

    -Havard

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